The Only Offline Journal You Need to Read - No Messing, Serious Business!

So here we go.

I know you recently there's been a lot of journals lately, and basically nearly all have fizzled out one way or another. But this is different, im different. This is not just some, "lets give this a go and whatever happens". Im going to MAKE it happen, what ever the cost or time, and im not just going to let this die, and you will see why.

Some may remember my post from the old days, some may not, but they arn't here any more due to a few changes over the years. Anyway, since then I've not done much on here. A few things here and there. However I've been getting into gear for a full blown offline business. Sometimes its a hinderance, sometimes it is great but with whatever I do I always like to do things "properly", I like to have a plan, know exactly what im doing and whats happening. So I tend to follow "Go Big or Go Home"..again you will see why in a bit. So sometimes I find myself not moving anywhere because im just planning too much, it has happened with this project as well here and there but I pushed through the mental block of "not ready yet" and carried on going.

Ive got multiple "offline plans" which ill be implementing, but the first and for most is the "SEO for local companies" plan of action.

Like I said, serious business and ill show you why.

So ive read almost every offline pdf, thread, wso, under the sun and using bits here and there have put together my own plan.

1) Stage 1

So first thing to do was to create my brand. Sorry but im not going to reveal names and websites here.

Brand made, site bought, set up, logo designed it was time to register as a company. Its a LTD company with 2 directors, me and my friend / partner. This whole thing is a 2 man, not because of the work load (well it helps) but we are constantly bouncing ideas of each other and putting things together. The ideas you can come up with when your doing something with a friend and someone else who is interested will make you surprise yourself.

All our offline plans are going to be run through this company.

I also bought a local number from Skype. All calls can be redirect to skype on mine my partners mobile, they both ring together and who ever answers first gets it.

1) Stage 2

Now my company has been officially registered and I have my company number and registered office it was time to get my letter heads sorted.

I ordered 350 letterheads and 700 continuation sheets. This is because my reports that I will be sending out are 3 pages long. One main letterhead with logo etc and then basic minimal sheets for the other 2 pages.
The paper is so nice and thick and the quality of the print is amazing

Now I have professionally printed letter heads I need to makes sure the content looks nice and clear. So I went out and found a someone selling a really nice second hand HP printer.

1) Stage 2

Now all that has been sorted out it was time to order my boxs and report binders. I ordered 100 boxs and 100 report binders, its a clear plastic sleeve and the spines. I was a bit upset when they arrived flat back and they weren't even pop up style, but then I don't know why I was expecting them to be ready made, would have had to be delivered in their own lorry otherwise! ha

The report in the picture was just a draft and a one off for a local shop. The SEO reports are later.

1) Stage 3

Now that everythings in place its time to get going. Heres my "factory"...

And Heres the first 5 reports

1) Stage 4

Time to go big or go home.

50 reports

Now they are done its time to write up the boxs. Im going to be hand writing the address on the boxs just to add that bit of personalisation.

1) Stage 5

The bit im dreading the most. Making the boxs. I decided to go get some double sided tap to help keep the boxs together because the way the boxs are made they have a tendancy to spring open and unfold. It also helps speed things up as I dont have to be so careful in making sure every things locked in place

A few cardboard papper cuts and a lot of mess lat

Boxs done!

1) Stage 6

Time to do the sorting, matching each report to the correct address

And the final outcome,

ALL DONE

1) The Reports

So heres the bit most of you are probally wanting to know. What is in the report. Well, ill show you each page...Its a mix of different ideas from here and else where and my own ideas. I know some people may say it silly to change what other people are saying already works but I dont feel comfortable with some bits, and some bits I dont like the sound of and or want to change. So heres my version.

You should be able to read the text fine from those.

1) The rest of the details

So thats my "build log". Heres the rest of the details.

I pretty much just go through each area around where I live and look through the newspappers, online directories etc and find all the people who arent coming up for the local term "Plumber in Town" etc. However they all have to be based in the town itself / have an office in the town. Like I wont be working with big businesses who want to get listed in every area.

I have a triple monitor set up which really helps out. Couldn't believe it some company chucking the side ones for $50 for the pair!

So the middle screen I use for finding potential businesses. The left screen I have my GDocs Spreadsheets open which I use to put the info in of businesses that I will be contacting. The right screen is the G Search results so I can quickly see if they are on the front page or not.

My spreadsheet looks like this,

I have my GDocs set up like this.

A folder for each Niche. So Plumber folder, builder, accountant etc. Inside is 4 spreadsheets. Builders in North City , South City etc. Inside each of them is what I have shown you in the previous picture. I have around 20 sheets in each excel for each small Town inside the City.

Im aiming for 10 niches. Then Ill mail to 10 of each niche in each town. So, 10 niches * 10 people, * 20 towns * 4 areas of the city. Thats a LOT of potential customers and when you think about it, its actually very very easy, once you dont need to find new niches, you dont need to find where to look. Its just "10 plumbers from town 1, 10 from town 2 ...... 10 accountants from town 1, 10 from town 2 ......"

Once I have filled up my spreadsheets, I download them to the PC.

I have a MAIL MERGE template set up in Word. Word uses the spreadsheet I downloaded with a little macro I made to extract the names, niche, keywords from the excel. Word puts these details in the template automatically and creates the 10 reports or how ever many. Then prints them all out in one go.

I manually enter the screen shots myself but word can be set up to mail merge with pictures so you could do all niches and all areas in one go providing you have the screenshots saved.

The boxs im using are provided by mail service, they are a certain size to be cheap and to not be classed as a parcel, they are just under that so they are classed as a large letter. This keeps the cost down.
All together each box just goes over the smallest weight boundary so to ship each box its around $2. $1.50ish if they where a tiny bit lighter.

So my costs

LetterHeads inc P&P: $216

Boxs inc P&P: $38

Report Binders: $40

Printer: $90

Incorperation of Company: $90 (I used a formation agency which did the legal stuff for me and I get to use their address as my registered office for a year)

However I ordered 100 boxs and binders and 1050 printed pages. So if we break it down.

$216 / 1050 = $0.20 per page
$38 + $40 / 100 = $0.78

So each report is 3 pages and the cost of each completed boxed up report is

0.2 * 3 + 0.78 = $1.38

Ive made 50 reports so far so my total cost so far is for the reports

$1.38 * 50 = $69

Ive only spent $70 and im going to spend around that amount to ship. So lets say at the end of the day ive spent $140 for 50 reports (not including printing ink! haha) that really is not bad at all. Im really happy. Im going to be sending all these out on Monday.
I have no idea how many or if any people will contact me or sign up, im thinking maybe 1 or 2? Even if only 1 ill be happy.

After 2 days the people I have not heard from I will call up.

Now, one idea was, because these are all local businesses I thought about going into the shops and handing them the report myself by hand. What do you guys think about that?

1) Closing

Hopefully I have help boost the people who are sitting on the fence, ive put a lot of time and effort and money into this and im going to see it through to the end.
Like I said I have other ideas and plans which will be run along side this.

Such as moblie site design, ecommerce set up for local stores etc etc. And theres a few other ventures ill be doing but thats something for later.

My end goal. Is to make enough money to set up online stuff such as niche sites etc, so they are running in the background and ill get my own little office.
I dont if anyone has heard of Office Shares. Its basically one big office and you rent a desk out perfect for we do. Its mainly designers and photographers, coders and other creative people who uses these to have a base for them selfs. They are also really cost effective.

Heres one thats near me, its only $90 a week per desk. Includes bills and internet

Thats obviously a really nice top one but theres loads about, some with meeting rooms you can share, games rooms. That is my aim and is what is making me push. To have my own booth and just be my own boss!

Very nice man I'm glad you have posted this,
will definitely be reading about your inevitable
success in this game! I am in the process of
ordering proposal forms, letterheads, B cards and
even company branded pens for the heck of it!

My approach on SEO however will be a little
different. I will instead rank a website, or video
in this matter for keywords and funnel the leads
to a business and rent them the video. I find it to
be much more cost effective and the amount will
depend on what type of business I will target.

I will also be forming my company with a close
personal friend of mine and it's always best with
someone you know and trust! Hope this thread helps
all the offline marketers who are already taking action and
are preparing to do so. +Rep to OP for a nice read

Very well laid out plan. This is something that I've wanted to get into for a long time and you may have just given me the extra push I needed. How are you going to be pricing your services? With the recent changes to Google Places migrating to G+ and Zaggat does this affect your overall ranking strategy? Will you be doing all the actual ranking or have you figured out how to outsource that work as well.

Nice thread, Just a tip though: In my experience I found a local skype number to be awful quality not even good enough for personal use let alone business calls. It might be different in the states but definitely test the call quality and I'd recommend going with a proper (PBX?) forwarding company which also allows forwarding to multiple mobiles etc.

My approach on SEO however will be a little different. I will instead rank a website, or video in this matter for keywords and funnel the leads to a business and rent them the video. I find it to be much more cost effective and the amount will depend on what type of business I will target.
I will also be forming my company with a close personal friend of mine and it's always best with someone you know and trust! Hope this thread helps all the offline marketers who are already taking action and are preparing to do so. +Rep to OP for a nice read
Thanks.

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Thanks for the rep.

I do like the idea of the pay per lead, perhaps I could switch to that if I am not able to grab someone in Niche X in Town Y. The only thing for me is, ranking their site and helping them fix their rating and fix up their places is more them paying me to do "work". Even if they didn't get any extra businesses from what I do (even though im sure they will, but its not me who controls their customers minds) I feel more happy taking their money as its like ive spent time and money so they are paying for that.

Im glade your doing it with a friend, you will amaze yourself with ideas you 2 will come up with. My friend is into a few things that I know nothing about, mainly the cycling scene and he was telling me this about whole new world of cycling and was telling me what is missing and how we could fill in the gap. Without him I wouldn't have know about this. And visa versa.

Have you thought about cold-calling? Might be successful with your will to succeed

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I have thought about it, but one of my "go big or go home" things is that, choose the best converting method and just do it on a big scale. So direct mail is the highest converting but most costly and if you do it right the responce will be good. In and ideal world and what im hoping for (although im not going to get upset if it doesn't happen) is to have 1 client per town per niche. Hopefully 10 reports in the same niche will be enough to get 1 from that niche.
If all goes well I WONT need to cold call. One of my other offline plans could work with cold call but let me just say this.

I was thinking cold calling to get a big base covered because its a lesser sell (a one off sell so I dont mind losing people which might have converted direct mail) but then I thought "go big or go home" instead of cold calling, ill email. Ill hire a virtual worker to collect EMAILS of the businesses that come under the citeria that I would use to call them, leave the worker for a few days to basically try and get the email of every matching business in the country, set up a mail merge again so I can personalise and then send the emails (within the laws dont forget) so basically 1000s of emails or more suposed to 100s of cold calls.
But again its something im thinking about. (See what I mean about my planning sometimes it gets the best of me and makes me slow right down! Argh)
....But then I was thinking instead of emailing or cold calling, do a 1 page letter in an envelope. Get some new letterheads printed on CHEAPER paper that I can do a mass direct mail with. Saving my high quality heads of reports etc.
Again still set up with a mail merge etc to make it personal.

Very well laid out plan. This is something that I've wanted to get into for a long time and you may have just given me the extra push I needed. How are you going to be pricing your services? With the recent changes to Google Places migrating to G+ and Zaggat does this affect your overall ranking strategy? Will you be doing all the actual ranking or have you figured out how to outsource that work as well.

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Go for it! Do make sure you have a clear idea then its easy, just like clockwork. What I mean is dont get bits here and there. Have it all laid out so when you get one thing done you know what to move onto.
I set up the company, then I could move onto the letterheads, I ordered them and while waiting for them I ordered the boxs while they where coming I was building my list of businesses and mailmerge template. etc etc

You will always find after weeks or months of planning when you look back at it everything got done and happened in a few days basically.

Pricing is going to depend wildly. Some plumbers are independent some are a small businesses with multiple people and service multiple offices. One accountant on my list is not far from my house and they have this MASSIVE 3 story mansion they work from. Unless its shared but theres only the one sign in the front for them...(and they arnt listed in the SERPS anywhere) so obviously they would be charged more. Its not also because "I can", even though it is a bit, but also the bigger the company the more you would WANT to do for them to ensure you build a good relationship with them. I don't mean anything crazy but maybe help them set up a blog and a bit more optimisation and tips and tricks that would wouldn't normally bother telling a smaller client.

I am 2000% not worried one bit about any of the changes in Google and heres why. These local terms are just so uncompetitive, like the top spot sometimes dopiest even have any backlinks. This however I think is due to who and how im doing my targeting.

Instead of saying "your not ranking for plumber in MASSIVE MAIN CITY" for example, but instead I choose the SMALLEST area possible that still registers search volumes in adwords. A tiny suburban town.
My actual area that I live in, the smallest you can get is the suburban town I live in, the population is only 15k! Yet certain terms still get a few hundred searches a month. This makes it so easy for you to rank. It also opens up 1000000s more clients. Instead of working with 1 in the main town, you can break that up into tiny areas and maybe get 3 or 4 in that one place but all under their own community. Then you could go after a bigger person or charge more for them to rank for the next level up.

But another thing is...most of their website ARE ABSOLUTELY SHOCKINGLY BAD! (Dont ask to see any please)

Some people have 1 page and on that page is just one big IMAGE!, some of them are multi page like 5 page but each page is AN IMAGE. Some are are so under optimized its not even funny. Others look like a 1 year old made it.

So im 99% sure, me just going in, getting their site cleaned up, making the text optimized or adding text, fixing the images and just fixing up their site would be enough to get them like 9 or 10. Without me doing anyyywork.

Others dont have Google Places / +1 at all, others have it but its so outdated, no info, doesnt even link to their website. So most of the work will just be fix up tune up, getting things in order. Im positive that along will do the trick for most. Then just throw a few backlinks in here and there to their pages, using a $50 SEO package from here and it will be done.

Nice thread, Just a tip though: In my experience I found a local skype number to be awful quality not even good enough for personal use let alone business calls. It might be different in the states but definitely test the call quality and I'd recommend going with a proper (PBX?) forwarding company which also allows forwarding to multiple mobiles etc.

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Thanks for letting me know, I have done a test but only as a fun thing "AHH I have an actual phone number now, let me try it out" but I do have a very high speed internet here so it might help me out hopefully. But again its to get my going, once im making money hopefully ill be moving to my office / desk in town

Sick post man! Thanks for sharing. This method has been around for a while but it's great to actually see it in action with price breakdowns. I'm also in the process of mine. I just completed my custom website, logo and almost finished with my letterheads and cards. I also definitely wanted to do things legit and create a brand. Still got to get my content on my website up.

I should definitely, post one of these posts like yours when I finally get my direct mailers setup. I'll be focusing on 1 niche and sending a direct mailer piece out to the local area for my niche. I'll be promoting, strictly website design and pushing out "niche" template websites and charge a setup and monthly fee.

I want to try out all direct mail methods and see which method gives the best results. My first test will be an envelope mailer with 3 pages, just like yours but inside an envelope. I'm pretty sure, it's going to cost just the same. I should probably just do your boxes lol.

I want to work with these local companies and start them off with a website and re-send ocassional information packets about other specific services I offer. Website Design > Local Business Listings > Reputation Management > Video Creation > Video Marketing > Search Engine Optimization > Social Media Marketing > etc etc.

This way, I can send a direct mail piece to every local business in a niche saying they need a website and I can have more of them purchase a website. I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of $399 or $499 one time fee and $60 per month for web hosting and maintenance; offering a free domain name and more services.

Send a mailer of about 50 reports have like 10 purchase. That would be $3,990 at $399 one time fee and $600/month in hosting.

I also can't wait to hear the results of your test. I have subscribed to your post . Please let us know!

I want to work with these local companies and start them off with a website and re-send ocassional information packets about other specific services I offer. Website Design > Local Business Listings > Reputation Management > Video Creation > Video Marketing > Search Engine Optimization > Social Media Marketing > etc etc.

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Nice that your going for it. But, in my opinion I think maybe you have too much stuff going on in your head! ha (Dont worry it was the same for me). I was reading all these twist and different things that I could offer and I was thinking "Ahhh Should I offer this, or that, what if I say this or that. Sell this package then XYZ" Trying to cram it all in.

But then in the end I settled on just the ONE thing. I think it will help you out with a clear path, it did for me, but also you might find yourself making sales easier (just my own thinking) because you have ONE focus, you wont be bombarding them with all kinds of things. However, im focusing on the ONE thing but once im in and we get a conversation going in a meeting for example then if I can I will introduce other areas. Such as video creation or social management / rep management.

Again this is my thinking but try and make what ever services your going to office seemless. Instead of offering 3 packages for 3 prices offer 1 package for one higher price. In my mind it would sound better as you will be saying this one package offers LOADS of stuff rather than 3 smaller packages? You know what im saying? (im just typing my mind atm haha but its how im feeling about all this anyway)

So when you sit down in your meeting, talk with them about their businesses and formulate a plan which includes these areas, instead of trying to SELL these areas. Then when you made your plan you can charge higher amount rather than trying to sell 3 separate services.
Like I say its how I feel, some people might disagree? Be good to find out.

Are the red handwritings all written by hand or are they printed? and if printed, whats that for font?

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Nope, every piece of handwriting is in fact written by hand.

The funny thing is, when I first started it was taking a while but by the end I was like a machine, I found the best way of holding the boxs, folding the boxs, putting the reports in the sleve, setting out the pages for quickest access to write on them. I was like a factory line. Was able to get through things pretty quick.

I'm very eager to hear how this works out. This is a nice twist to 7878's method where he uses dice' to put more weight in the envelope, instead you use a box, they are definitely going to want to open that. This sort of preparation is what has success written all over it. Are you hoping to invest the money from your offline business into building your network of sites for that residual honey? I'm looking forward to your updates.

I'm very eager to hear how this works out. This is a nice twist to 7878's method where he uses dice' to put more weight in the envelope, instead you use a box, they are definitely going to want to open that. This sort of preparation is what has success written all over it. Are you hoping to invest the money from your offline business into building your network of sites for that residual honey? I'm looking forward to your updates.

My ideal outcome will be get a 1 / 2 clients a week and in between that use some of the money im making offline to build online things. Review sites, Authority sites, build a few apps I have in mind etc etc. But thats still a while yet...

Looks like you took the time and seems well thought out with a/your GREAT attitude! No doubt you'll have your own booth and more in no time! ;-)
Do keep us updated on your progress and your stats on initial response vs follow up.
Best of luck with your great adventure, it will inspire others to take action too!
Patch

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